A law enforcement officer attacked as he approached a home near the Texas A&M University campus was killed along with a civilian in a Monday shootout that also left the gunman dead, police said.
Two other law enforcement officers and a woman were injured in the shooting in College Station, said Bryan Police Department spokesman Jon Agnew. Bryan police are assisting in the investigation.
Assistant College Station Police Chief Scott McCollum identified the law enforcement officer killed as Brazos County Constable Brian Bachmann.
Mr. McCollum said Bachmann had gone to an off-campus home near the A&M football stadium when the gunman opened fire from inside the house. He said he didn’t know why Bachmann had gone to the home.
Other officers responded to the home after receiving a call that an officer was down. They shot the gunman and took him into custody, Mr. McCollum said. The gunman was later pronounced dead.
The two other injured officers were hospitalized and the civilian woman was undergoing surgery, Agnew said.
Agnew said officers had established a perimeter around the area shortly after the shooting just east of the Texas A&M campus, but they do not believe a second suspect was involved. He said police don’t know if the shooter was a student at the university.
The school had issued an alert on its website just before 12.30 p.m. warning of an active shooter. The alert warned residents and students to avoid the area, and was later updated with the shooter taken into custody.
Texas A&M spokeswoman Sherylon Carroll said most students were not on campus Monday. The fall semester does not begin until August 27.
“It appeared to be fairly quiet,” Ms. Carroll said of campus. “It didn’t appear to be a lot of people out and about at that particular time.”
College Station is about 145 kilometres northwest of Houston. Texas A&M is home to more than 50,000 students, according to its website.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry, an A&M alumnus, said at an event in Florida that his “prayers are with any of those that have been injured.”
